CHMP shake-up

15.05.2012 - Tomas Salmonson, the vice-chair of the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), has transiently taken over the tasks of Eric Abadie, who stepped down as CHMP head at the beginning of April.

After Abadie lost his paid job at the French regulatory agency (Afssaps) because of restructuring, the CHMP was not able to make up his salary.

21.05.2012 British Bicycle Therapeutics plc (Cambridge) named Rolf Günther as its new Chief Executive Officer in April. Under the former CEO and COO of Affimed, Bicycle will offer drug discovery partners its proprietary bicyclic peptide technology, which combines the benefits of small molecules with the selectivity of biopharmaceuticals.

The technology platform allows affinity selection of peptides displayed on the surfaces of phages that are linked to an organic scaffold. Günther has more than 21 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, with an extensive background in drug development, biologics and speciality pharmaceuticals. At Affimed, he successfully developed the antibody specialist’s clinical product portfolio in oncology. Günther will continue to be engaged as COO at Affimed in a part-time position until August. He has also held the position of VP and General Manager of the Critical Care business unit of Aventis Behring, which he joined in 1996, and has been responsible for successful drug approvals in both the US and Europe.

07.05.2012 InDex Pharmaceuticals has strengthened its clinical know-how with the appointment of Pernilla Sandwall as Head of Clinical Operations.

Sandwall's main focus will be on the Phase III clinical trial of Kappaproct® in patients with treatment-refractory ulcerative colitis. The New Chief Medical Officer Thomas Knittel will provide leadership in medical and marketing affairs. InDex Pharmaceuticals is an immunology focused biopharmaceutical company, based in Stockholm.

30.04.2012 The All European Academies (ALLEA) elected Prof Dr Günter Stock as its new head in mid-April. The physiologist Günter Stock, who was a former member of the Executive Board of Berlin-based Schering AG (today Bayer Healthcare) headed the Union of the German Academies of Sciences prior to its five-year term at the ALLEA.

The ALLEA network of 53 European Academies of Sciences represents about 10,000 scientists across the European Union. New vice-president is the theologian Ed Noort, professor emeritus from Groningen University and formerly foreign secretary of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences KNAW.

03.05.2012 Cellectis has enlisted Mathieu Simon as a new Senior Vice-president. Simon brings in more than 25 years of leadership experience at Wyeth and Groupe Pierre Fabre.

Simon will coordinate the activities of company subsidiaries Cellectis Therapeutics, Ectycell and Cellartis, which represent the young stem cell business of the French specialist for genome engineering. The new VP has extensive experience in marketing and sales of pharmaceuticals in Europe. Since 2011, Simon has been acting as an advisor to both financial institutions and other companies in the sector.

11.05.2012 Swedish vaccine adjuvant company Isconova AB (Uppsala) has appointed a new CEO. Sven Andréasson took over from Russel Greig, who in turn assumed Ulf Tossman's post as the firm's Chairman of the Board.

Andréasson comes in from Beta-Cell NV (Brussels) and brings in nine years of experience as CEO of Active Biotech AB. Isconova wants to move forward with key clinical studies, strengthen corporate development activities, and enhance revenues from its saponine-based Matrix technology. In 2011, it had vaccine sales of a7.7m, –35.8% less than in 2010.

20.06.2012 Andrew Bulpin took over Merck-Millipore‘s Process Solutions Business Unit. The chemist – who previously served as Head of Global Pharmaceutical Chemicals Solutions Sales – succeeds the retired Jean-Paul Mangeolle.

Bulpin joined Millipore in 2006 as a Vice President for the firm's Upstream Processing Business Unit. In January 2012, he assumed leadership of the company's Services and Solutions Business Department. Bulpin was appointed to his current position following the company's acquisition by Merck.

04.06.2012 German Antisense Pharma has looked abroad for fresh inspiration in its management board. At the beginning of May, the Regensburg-based company appointed Dr Philippe Calais as its new Chief Executive Officer.

The Frenchman brings in more than twenty years of international experience in executive positions in both biotech and pharmaceutical firms. Calais successfully guided the development of several drugs through clinical development and commercialisation in his former positions at F. Hoffmann La-Roche and ICI Pharmaceuticals. At Antisense Pharma, he will be responsible for commercialisation of the biopharmaceutical company's lead drug candidate Trabedersen (AP 12009). The antisense drug, which blocks the Transforming GrowthFactor beta 2 (TGF-b2) from being expressed, is currently in Phase III development against glioma, as well as in Phase I/II development for pancreatic cancer and maglignant melanoma. Calais steps in for interim CEO Hubert Heinrichs, who had led the business on an interim basis since July of last year.

07.06.2012 Creabilis SA has appointed Simon Russell as its new Chief Business Officer.

He joins the dermatology, inflammation and pain specialist from Novartis Pharma AG, where he played a number of global strategic marketing roles. Russell moved to Novartis from AstraZeneca, where he worked as Global Brand Strategy Director Biologics. He began his industry career at ICI Pharmaceuticals.

11.06.2012 Cancer nanodelivery firm Nanobiotix has appointed Dr. Bernd Muehlenweg as a member of its Executive Board.

He joined the firm in 2011 as Head of Business Development. Previously, Muehlenweg worked for Wilex AG (Munich) as Director of Business Development, where he played a key role for the company in licencing and commercialisation agreements.

29.05.2012 Alan Schafer is to head British biomarker specialist Population Genetics Technologies Ltd.

The firm's new CEO has a track record in research, Big Pharma management and building new businesses. The former Wellcome Trust’s Director of Science Funding is currently an Adjunct Professor of Innovation at the Imperial College London. He has also served as Global Vice-President of Technology Development at GlaxoSmithKline, and co-founded the functional genomics firm Hexagen.

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